How Colorado plans to protect the great outdoors

Yahoo

24-04-2025

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Governor Jared Polis warns that the Trump Administration's tariffs on outdoor recreation equipment and widespread layoffs in the outdoor industry pose major risks to Colorado's beloved natural spaces.
In response, Gov. Polis is launching the 'Colorado's Outdoors Strategy,' a statewide initiative to protect Colorado's great outdoors.
'We are the very first state to have a comprehensive strategy, which is really remarkable,' Gov. Polis explained. 'When you think about what makes Colorado special, one of our greatest assets is our outdoors. It's important to make sure that we have a vision for conservation and outdoor recreation, climate resilience, and agriculture to make sure we can deploy, use, and protect our outdoors in a way that benefits us and future generations.'
Colorado's Outdoors StrategyDownload
State leaders are concerned–with more people moving in, climate change, wildfires, and drought, Colorado's outdoor spaces are feeling the pressure.
'The biggest short-term threat, I think, on everybody's mind is tariffs because these are actually really a question of whether our outdoor industry can even exist,' Gov. Polis said.
The Outdoor Industry Association reports new tariffs will make it more expensive to make and sell outdoor gear in the U.S., which could lead to fewer jobs and a lack of options for customers.
Colorado leaders are also concerned about growth, with the state's population expected to jump from 5.5 million to 8.5 million by 2050. The new plan is all about helping Colorado strike the right balance between enjoying the outdoors and protecting it for the future.
'Smart growth is a term we hear a lot in our urban core along the front range, but often it's not thought about in our outdoors,' said Becky Leinweber, Executive Director of the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance. 'If we just open up the floodgates and just let everybody go and didn't do anything different to try and get ahead of it, have good management practices, support our land managers, make sure that those experiences are there for the long haul so that future generations enjoy it, then we'd be in a world of hurt.'
The strategy comes to life through nine objectives and 33 coordinating partner actions, along with a resource hub–offering free online data, mapping tools, and other resources to support conservation, outdoor recreation, and climate resilience planning.
'This effort is really rooted in our need to understand and meet the challenges that we know our outdoors face, and this is a strategic approach to not only protect, but frankly enhance our outdoor recreation industry, both from the experience side for residents, for visitors, and also for the business side,' Gov. Polis explained.
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